Reflective Statement-Hedda Gabler In Henrik Ibsen’s psychological drama “Hedda Gabler”, the society and social distribution plays a significant role. Ibsen portrays how society and social issues greatly affect Hedda, the protagonist of the play and how she finalizes everything with a suicide. Suicide is the most strongest and powerful arrangement of her self-destruction.

Henrik Ibsen shows several observations in this time period of the society. As an outcome of the society in which she lives in, she is one with a devastating nature. She desires and longs to satisfy her needs for life, but is unable because she is constrained by society and its requests on the individual. However, she undertakes to adjust rather than criticizing and denouncing her community on ethics. She lives in a constant life of boredom which results in her violent and demolishing behavior.

Women in Hedda’s time period didn’t have various rights. Thus, women were only to stay home and take care of her family. Hedda married Tesman not because she loved him, but to satisfy her needs by making her feel secure. She’s unhappy and stifled with her life. Therefore, when Lovborg who was once her lover when they were comrades, confessed to her and told her the truth about the incident of the manuscripts. He told her that he didn’t lose the manuscripts, but lost it instead. Hedda decides to not give the manuscripts back to him, but chooses to burn it. The manuscript symbolizes Lovborg’s and Thea’s future and their strong relationship and love for each other. However, Hedda ends up ruining and destroying because she is jealous of their strong bonding. The fire symbolizes Hedda’s burning desire to escape her miserable life. Also, Hedda despises people who are more superior than her. For example, she realizes how a woman like Thea has influence and power over a man like Lovborg. Hedda becomes arrogant and ignorant which leads her to burn the manuscript.

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...Setting as a Clarification of Motives in HeddaGabler
Henrik Ibsen centralizes one of his most renowned plays, HeddaGabler, around an upper-class housewife, and the complexities behind her seemingly average life. The title character finds herself in conditions that would be highly sought after by most young women of the nineteenth century: in a seemingly stable marriage with a comfortable home, and significantly more freedom than most females were offered within the context of the play. For this reason, Hedda’s tragic suicide comes as a surprise, and is often considered to be incomprehensible and unjustifiable in the minds of audience members. That being said, Ibsen clarifies Hedda’s motives by using the play’s setting to offer hints and explanation regarding the character’s condition as well as the factors that make her a victim of society. By understanding Ibsen’s use of the broader setting of nineteenth century Norway, as well as the smaller and more detailed setting on stage, one can in turn begin to understand the reasoning behind Hedda’s final impassioned decision and the events leading up to the play’s tragic conclusion.
The nineteenth century was a time of patriarchal dominance, which is the foundation beneath most of Hedda’s internal conflict. Being raised by her father as a young girl, Hedda was treated more like a son than a daughter, and therefore able to enjoy freedoms that were...

...When Hedda first enters, she explains, "The room needs fresh air". How important is the idea of oppression and confinement to the drama of the play?
The main topic of this play concerns the role of the women in a conventional society, how oppressed they are and forced to follow a track that constrains. They are forbidden from expressing themselves; Ibsen shows that for some women those rules and values are fatal.
The entire play takes place in the living room ofHedda and George's house. Hedda is confined to this living room. George says that all he dreamed of was to see her as the hostess of the house: “Yes, if you only knew how I had been looking forward to it! Fancy-to see you as hostess-in a select circle”. In contrast, Hedda wanted a horse: “And the saddle horse I was to have had”, which represents her desire for adventure. The stove in the living room has significance in the play. Hedda is associated with cold, but here with fire. The fire in the stove represents the burning desire Hedda seems to have for an adventurous life, her smoldering discontent with her current condition, her jealousy and rage. This intense passion rises to the surface every now and then. Hedda's games and intrigues stem from her desire to escape the confines of her stifled life. Throughout the play, she is in constant motion, moving from an upstage position to the stove, downstage right, from the stove...

...A Literary Analysis of HeddaGablerHeddaGabler is a text in which jealousy and envy drive a woman to manipulate and attempt to control everyone in her life. The protagonist, Hedda, shows her jealousy in her interactions with the other characters in the play, particularly with Eilert Loveborg and Thea Elvsted. Because Hedda is unable to get what she wants out of life because of her gender and during the time of the play, her age, she resorts to bringing everyone else down around her. Hedda lets her jealousy get the best of her and because of this she hurts many of the people around her as well as ultimately hurting herself.
When the play was written, Hedda, being a woman, did not have many rights and had to do what was expected of a woman during that time period. She was afraid of scandal and envied those who were not. Her envy and jealousy at those who were free to be in control of their own lives was the driving force behind Hedda’s manipulative behavior and attempts to destroy the lives of others. She did the horrible things that she did to make herself feel as though she had some power and some control. It was her way of trying to ease the jealousy she felt towards others. She ruined their lives, so she would have nothing to be jealous of. HeddaGabler is a complex piece of literature in which Henrik Ibsen is able to portray...

...his article examines the relationships among language, power, and gender in Ibsen's "HeddaGabler." It shows how the central character in Ibsen's play, while conscious of the manipulative potential of words, nevertheless fails to negotiate that potential and ultimately chooses silence as a means to challenge her position in the patriarchal order. Such an analysis of the power of words represents a continuation of Ibsen's own analysis of the mechanisms of meaning and highlights the playwright's aesthetic self-consciousness, both of which are central elements in Ibsen's modernism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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his article examines the relationships among language, power, and gender in Ibsen's "HeddaGabler." It shows how the central character in Ibsen's play, while conscious of the manipulative potential of words, nevertheless fails to negotiate that potential and ultimately chooses silence as a means to challenge her position in the patriarchal order. Such an analysis of the power of words represents a continuation of Ibsen's own analysis of the mechanisms of meaning and highlights the playwright's aesthetic self-consciousness, both of which are central elements in...

...play 'HeddaGabler', a tragic tale of a young woman's struggle in finding her place in life. HeddaTasmen is trapped in a life with a loveless marriage, absolute boredom and a complete lack of friends. Nonetheless, Hedda’s character was the principal target of much of the negative criticism in Ibsen’s plays. She has been portrayed as a viscous, petty, and extremely selfish woman through ‘Hedda Forever: An anti-heroine for the Ages’ by Charles Isherwood in 2009 and the television series of ‘HeddaGabler’ by David Cunliffe in 1981. These productions’ purpose was never to evoke the audiences’ sympathy for Hedda, which I would like to achieve instead through the ideas of entrapment and the production elements that would deliver this message. Often, members of the audiences will sympathise with one character in a play over others and I believed Hedda deserves our empathy.
In today society, people feel trapped by circumstances, by the expectations of others or the perceptions of success. They would like to have a different direction in their lives, but they are held back by the fear that incompatible with that freedom. This is best described Hedda, a daughter of the General Gabler, who has always been admired by everyone in her life. The audiences would able to notice this through the compliments for Hedda from other characters such as Aunt...

...and the pistols.
In act one Aunt Julle produces Tesman"'"s old slippers, much to Tesman"'"s delight. He wants Hedda to examine them but she is not interested. The slippers help Ibsen to prove the status of the marriage between Hedda and Tesman, which Hedda calls "'"excruciatingly boring"'". When aunt Julle gives the slippers to Tesman he seems very excited and wants to show Hedda them. He says to Hedda '"'My old morning shoes. My slippers –look!'"' and Hedda replies with "'"Oh yes. I remember you often spoke of them while we were away.'"' Tesman then says "'"Yes I missed them dreadfully"'". When on a honeymoon it is expected to be an enjoyable and intimate time and yet it seems Tesman was more interested in his slippers than Hedda. Tesman"'"s use of the word "'"dreadfully"'" suggests an extreme longing for the slippers which should be the last thing on his mind during a honeymoon.
The slippers also are symbolic of Tesman"'"s relationship with his aunts. Hedda reacts to the slippers with rejection because she feels this symbolizes the relationship between Tesman and his aunts, which is a symbol of his bourgeois life.
When Tesman says "'"Oh, you can"'"t imagine how many memories are worked into them."'" It shows how Tesman holds his family in high value and is still treated like a child by his aunts. Just a simple pair of slippers can excite him so much....

...﻿Franklin Wang
Stephanie Dukes
English A1-HL
February 1st, 2014
HeddaGabler Reflective Statement
Unlike most plays of this time period, HeddaGabler goes into a new depth in depicting human flaws, character, and emotions. Culturally the play is very controversial with its many isuses. Contextually Ibsen uses easy and understandable vocabulary to amplify the realness of characters, giving them a human quality that we can relate to.
The time and place is also very important. The past industrialization period in Norway displays women as a lesser part of society. Their place was in the household, making them almost confined. People were expected to take on a certain role socially, and those who went against the system were judged upon, their places threatened amongst family and friends.
It was easy to understand the jealousy, greed, and envy of the characters. As humans, we always have a tendency to please ourselves and achieve personal gains. It was also easy to understand the issues of affairs,devorce, and other domestic problems. They occur everyday in our time period, but back the people simply spoke out against them, condemning them as immoral. It was hard to understand Hedda’s choice of escape, especially with shooting herself. Despite being confined to a tighter and tighter role, many options are still out there. If one would calm themselves and take logical actions, these problems would be easy to solve.
I...

...The character Hedda of the play HeddaGabler written by Henrik Ibsen during the Realism and Symbolism period foreshadows the Character who portrays the Stepdaughter in Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters In Search Of an Author written during the Modernism period. Hedda and the Stepdaughter are evil, diabolical and dangerous characters. Both Henrik Ibsen and Luigi Pirandello have managed to establish a hate and sympathy relationship between their characters, Hedda and the Stepdaughter, and the readers. Although Hedda and the Stepdaughter possess evil hearts the reader can easily feel a sense of sympathy for them. These two characters endure the pressure of society which forces them to confirm to the norm in fear of being alienated from society. Hedda lives in her father shadow; she is General Gabler’s daughter and she is accustomed to enjoying the finer things in life. She marries down and is forced to live a life in which she is not accustomed to. These inner pressures and conflicts have destroyed her individuality. Hedda resorts to shooting her fathers’ pistols to let off steam. She also threatens to shoot Judge Brack “Now, Judge Brack, I am going to shoot you” (1429).
The Stepdaughter in Six Characters In Search Of an Author also possesses the same evil traits. She is so distraught over having to prostitute herself out in order to take care of her family until...